OIT News – August 2012

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 58, August 2012
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Follow OIT on Twitter @NCStateOIT
For up-to-the-minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk
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01: What’s new at Software Licensing?
02: 
Quick guide for creating accessible content
03: New accessible color palette and math tutorials
04: Google best practices for back to school: Share your docs, protect your data
05: Latest and previous versions of docs in Google Drive
06: Google stock images available and growing
07: Create, design and deliver your publications with Adobe Acrobat Pro and InDesign
08: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training offered in September
09: SAR training scheduled for Sept. 11
10: SET used to target campus Maple users

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01: What’s new at Software Licensing?
Everything is new — Web platform, design, navigational structure, and content — at Software Licensing, the university’s software licensing hub that aggregates information about and provides downloads of all software available to campus users.

On Aug. 1, OIT launched the new Drupal-based website, which makes it easier to find software. Visitors can filter and list software programs by platform and by vendor. The new site is also easier for OIT site administrators to maintain and update. Please update any bookmarks you have to reflect the new URL: http://software.ncsu.edu. To provide feedback or ask questions about the new site, email software@ncsu.edu.

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02: Quick guide for creating accessible content
As the fall semester begins, OIT reminds the campus community of its responsibility to create an accessible IT environment. This means you should plan in advance to incorporate accessibility into your courses and other online content.  

To help you with this, the University IT Accessibility Office has released the IT Accessibility Quick Guide, a collection of techniques on how to create accessible documents, video, Web pages, and more. If you have questions about how to create accessible online content for your courses, please email accessibility@ncsu.edu.

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03: New accessible color palette and math tutorials
When you are designing a campus website, remember that color selection is important for both aesthetics and accessibility.

When working with an entire color palette, it is useful to know how much contrast each color combination provides. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide formulas for determining whether a given two-color combination passes accessibility requirements for color contrast. The NC State Accessible Color Palette Evaluator tutorial demonstrates a tool to help you determine this information.

There are also tools for easily creating accessible Web-based math. The first two parts of the “Accessible Math” video series describe the simplest way to create accessible math online and how to create accessible math in HTML5 and MathML. For more information, please contact the University IT Accessibility Office at accessibility@ncsu.edu.

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04: Google best practices for back to school: Share your docs, protect your data
One of the biggest advantages of having the entire campus community — students, faculty and staff — on Google Apps @ NC State is the ability to collaborate more easily.

Instead of emailing a document as an attachment (which puts a strain on storage and network bandwidth), you can create a Google doc in Google Drive and share it. You can control the extent to which a doc can be viewed, edited or commented upon in various situations: among professors and students, students in a group project, or staff in a department or organization. Each Google doc also has a revision history. To get started, visit Google’s help on How to Share a Google doc in Google Drive.

It’s also a good idea to protect your personal and business data. Visit Best Practices for Data Security in Google Apps @ NC State to learn about: 

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05: Latest and previous versions of docs in Google Drive
Google Drive is the new application that stores your Google Docs and other files in Google Apps @ NC State. Did you know that Google Drive can keep the latest and previous versions of your files?

For native Google docs — those created directly within the application — this can be valuable in understanding who has contributed what to a collaborative document for a group project or to revert back to a previous version to correct errors.

For the nuances of file version control, including differences between native Google docs and files stored in Google Drive in non-native Google formats (e.g., Word, Excel, PDF, JPG), see Google’s About File Versions page. Also, check Classmate for future training opportunities on using Docs and Google Drive, or contact OIT to set up a custom class for your unit or course.

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06: Google stock images available and growing
You can avoid potential copyright and attribution issues with images used in presentations, documents or spreadsheets by using Google stock images.

From your Google Drive, create or open a document. Click on Insert and then Image. Select Search and then Stock images. In the Stock search box, enter an image type, such as computers.

Additionally, you have the opportunity to expand Google’s image collection by nominating up to 10 images. To participate, visit “Want to help us curate a new batch of stock images?

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07: Create, design and deliver your publications with Adobe Acrobat Pro and InDesign
OIT will offer the following Adobe training sessions in August:

  • “Acrobat Pro Introduction: PDF Collaboration and Editing” will be offered on Thursday, Aug. 16 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. During this workshop, you will learn how to create a PDF document and edit it using text and image tools. You will also learn how to import from and export to Microsoft Word and how to use Adobe Acrobat collaboration tools. There will be an overview of the Adobe Creative Suite applications, including Bridge. To register, visit Classmate.
  • “InDesign Introduction” will be offered on Thursday, Aug. 30 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 101 of David Clark Labs. During this workshop, you will learn how to use InDesign for page layout for a single-sided project, and in the process, you will learn about typography and layout design. You will also investigate how tone, audience and purpose impact your design decisions. There will be an overview of applications within Adobe Creative Suite, including Bridge. To register, visit Classmate.

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08: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training offered in September
OIT will offer two Google Apps @ NC State training sessions during the month of September:

  • Google Apps @ NC State “Beyond the Basics: Calendar” will be offered on Thursday, Sept. 13 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs). This hands-on workshop will focus on some of the more intermediate features of Google Calendar, including appointment slots, event attachments, maps and directions, sharing and embedding calendars, labs features, quick add, search options, mobile notifications, and more. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

  • Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training will be offered on Tuesday, Sept. 18 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs). This hands-on workshop will cover everything you need to know to get started with Gmail and Google Calendar, including an overview of the apps and helpful resources. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

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09: SAR training scheduled for Sept. 11
Monthly Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.

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10: SET used to target campus Maple users
When hackers knock on your cyber door, how are you going to respond? OIT Security and Compliance works very hard to protect you against malicious activities so you won’t inadvertently provide hackers an opening to your personal and business data.

Earlier this month, OIT investigated an attack against registered users of Maple, a popular teaching and math education tool used on campus. Hackers stole a list containing users’ names and email addresses from the parent company MapleSoft and used this information to create a social engineering toolkit (SET), a collection of software designed for attacks on specific users or organizations. The SET sent an email with a maplefix.zip attachment, a password stealing virus, to Maple users on campus.

To make the email message more believable, hackers used the users’ real names in the email subject and message body. The message, which appeared to come from Maplesoft customer support, mentioned that the user had installed the software and that the maplefix.zip attachment was an urgent security update for Maple that needed to be installed. The virus attachment was also altered with random changes to avoid being detected by virus scanners. The university’s Postini Message Security service detected the infected attachments as viruses, and the email messages were never delivered to users’ email accounts.

This type of social engineering, where the attacker is aware of personal knowledge about the target, is now a part of most security breaches. So how can you avoid it?

  • Instead of responding to an email message like the one mentioned above, you should contact the purported source of the message directly, using a trusted connection. A legitimate request for you to update your software or computer settings should appear on the company’s (or the university’s) website.
  • To verify any request for information about your email account or computer services, you can always check SysNews or call the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357).
  • If you receive any type of phishing email that appears to come from an NC State (ncsu.edu) email address, please forward it to abuse@ncsu.edu or contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357). Please remember the NC State Help Desk staff will never ask for your password over the phone or via email.

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